Christopher Dorner: When Moderates Go Bad

Unlike so many killers who have tried to justify their murderous sprees with deranged manifestos, rogue LA cop Christopher Dorner is a picture of moderation. Dorner proudly cites as sources not Marx or Mao but the likes of MSNBC's Chris Matthews and CNN's Piers Morgan. What he has absorbed from these news people is less a political philosophy than a generalized sense of moral superiority. As Dorner has proved in the last few days, a moderate liberal, when trained, weaponized and sufficiently outraged, can be every bit as dangerous as the most wild-eyed radical. Smugness kills.

To be sure, Dorner despises the Los Angeles Police Department, but he has retained his affection for America and is not afraid to express it both in positive and negative terms. "Revoke the citizenship of Fareed Zakaria and deport him," he says of the Indian-American journalist, "I've never heard a positive word about America or its interest from his mouth, ever."

With few exceptions, Dorner likes what CNN and MSNBC have told him he can like. He "shed a tear" the night Barack Obama was elected President in 2008, but he also likes Chris Christie, Colin Powell, Bill Cosby, and the "honorable President George H.W. Bush." Although an Obama fan, Dorner claims to have sat out the 2012 election because the ultimate moderate candidate, the equally smug Jon Huntsman, did not prevail in the Republican primaries.

The media have also empowered Dorner to embrace "the LGBT community." In this regard, he singles out Ellen Degeneres for her particular contribution. The downside, alas, is that the media have also empowered him to hate and given him the language to express that hatred, in this case to "you Prop 8 supporters, why the f*** do you care who your neighbor marries. Hypocritical pieces of s***."

In a supreme bit of irony, Dorner has absorbed much too well the media's affection for gun control. "Who needs a freaking SBR AR15?" he asks. "No one. No more Virginia Tech, Columbine HS, Wisconsin temple, Aurora theatre, Portland malls, Tucson rally, Newtown Sandy Hook." I suspect that the people on his hit list are feeling the need for an AR-15 as I write, NRA head Wayne LaPierre high among them.

"Wayne LaPierre, President of the NRA, you're a vile and inhumane piece of s***," Dorner writes. "You are a failure of a human being. May all of your immediate and distant family die horrific deaths in front of you." One does not have to wonder where Dorner learned whom he was allowed to hate. He tells us.

At least a few of these people blamed the Tucson shooting on Sarah Palin, but the crazed leftist Jared Lee Loughner would never have thought to cite Palin as an inspiration. Now that these worthies have been cited by Dorner, it remains to be seen whether they will accept the responsibility that have been so willing to assign to others.

Unlike so many killers who have tried to justify their murderous sprees with deranged manifestos, rogue LA cop Christopher Dorner is a picture of moderation. Dorner proudly cites as sources not Marx or Mao but the likes of MSNBC's Chris Matthews and CNN's Piers Morgan. What he has absorbed from these news people is less a political philosophy than a generalized sense of moral superiority.

As Dorner has proved in the last few days, a moderate liberal, when trained, weaponized and sufficiently outraged, can be every bit as dangerous as the most wild-eyed radical. Smugness kills.

To be sure, Dorner despises the Los Angeles Police Department, but he has retained his affection for America and is not afraid to express it both in positive and negative terms. "Revoke the citizenship of Fareed Zakaria and deport him," he says of the Indian-American journalist, "I've never heard a positive word about America or its interest from his mouth, ever."

With few exceptions, Dorner likes what CNN and MSNBC have told him he can like. He "shed a tear" the night Barack Obama was elected President in 2008, but he also likes Chris Christie, Colin Powell, Bill Cosby, and the "honorable President George H.W. Bush." Although an Obama fan, Dorner claims to have sat out the 2012 election because the ultimate moderate candidate, the equally smug Jon Huntsman, did not prevail in the Republican primaries.

The media have also empowered Dorner to embrace "the LGBT community." In this regard, he singles out Ellen Degeneres for her particular contribution. The downside, alas, is that the media have also empowered him to hate and given him the language to express that hatred, in this case to "you Prop 8 supporters, why the f*** do you care who your neighbor marries. Hypocritical pieces of s***."

In a supreme bit of irony, Dorner has absorbed much too well the media's affection for gun control. "Who needs a freaking SBR AR15?" he asks. "No one. No more Virginia Tech, Columbine HS, Wisconsin temple, Aurora theatre, Portland malls, Tucson rally, Newtown Sandy Hook." I suspect that the people on his hit list are feeling the need for an AR-15 as I write, NRA head Wayne LaPierre high among them.

"Wayne LaPierre, President of the NRA, you're a vile and inhumane piece of s***," Dorner writes. "You are a failure of a human being. May all of your immediate and distant family die horrific deaths in front of you." One does not have to wonder where Dorner learned whom he was allowed to hate. He tells us.

At least a few of these people blamed the Tucson shooting on Sarah Palin, but the crazed leftist Jared Lee Loughner would never have thought to cite Palin as an inspiration. Now that these worthies have been cited by Dorner, it remains to be seen whether they will accept the responsibility that have been so willing to assign to others.